Making up a game that was postponed from Feb. 12, the Hillsboro Trojans traveled to Wichita Saturday night to take on highly regarded Collegiate.
Both Trojan teams played well in spots and never quit, but on the whole both teams lacked the consistency needed to pull an upset.
The Hillsboro girls rallied from a 21-point deficit late in the third quarter and narrowed the final margin of their loss to 47-35. Hillsboro led 6-5 through the first 5:30 of the game, before Collegiate spurted to an 11-7 lead by the first break. By halftime, the Spartans had inflated the margin to 23-9.
A flurry of seven HHS turnovers over a 2:30 stretch late in the third period helped Collegiate build its largest lead of the night at 40-18 at the 1:32 mark. But the Trojans played perhaps their best basketball in the final period to finish on a positive note.
Dakota Kaufman, the only Trojan to break double digits, scored 19 for Hillsboro, who dropped to 8-10 for the season and 5-4 in league play. Collegiate improved to 15-3 and 8-1.
In the boys? contest, Hillsboro got off to a slow start, committing turnovers during each of its first three possessions. Clay Shewey hit the Trojans? only field goal of the period when he drained a 3-pointer at the 4:11 mark. The Trojans trailed 14-4 at the first break.
Hillsboro stepped up its game in the second period, though, and pulled itself into contention by halftime at 24-19.
Unfortunately, the Trojans started poorly again in the third period, committing four turnovers and missing seven of its first eight shots, which enabled the Spartans to build the margin to 35-21 with 3:12 left in the period. Collegiate led 43-32 after three quarters.
The Spartans took control of the contest with a 6-1 run to start the fourth quarter and finished with a 56-44 victory.
David Loewen led HHS with 15 points and Shewey finished with 12 as Hillsboro dropped to 10-8 and 6-3 and state-ranked Collegiate improved to 16-2 and 9-0.
